Dear Nicolas, The log file you posted indicates that the PETSc configure system failed to download netcdf over ftp. If you have to use a proxy for http, it seems entirely possible that your ftp access is also blocked. The log file error message contains instructions on how to fix this: ******************************************************************************* UNABLE to CONFIGURE with GIVEN OPTIONS (see configure.log for details): ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Error during download/extract/detection of NETCDF: Unable to download package NETCDF from: ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/netcdf-4.5.0.tar.gz * If URL specified manually - perhaps there is a typo? * If your network is disconnected - please reconnect and rerun ./configure * Or perhaps you have a firewall blocking the download * You can run with --with-packages-download-dir=/adirectory and ./configure will instruct you what packages to download manually * or you can download the above URL manually, to /yourselectedlocation/netcdf-4.5.0.tar.gz and use the configure option: --download-netcdf=/yourselectedlocation/netcdf-4.5.0.tar.gz ******************************************************************************* So you want to download ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/netcdf-4.5.0.tar.gz and then tell the installer where to find it. You would do that with: export PETSC_CONFIGURE_OPTIONS=”--download-netcdf=/yourselectedlocation/netcdf-4.5.0.tar.gz” before running firedrake-install. It’s possible that there are other ftp downloads that PETSc does, which will require similar treatment. Essentially PETSc relies on you having internet access and your internet access appears to be restricted. Having the install fail leaves your firedrake directory in an inconsistent state. There is no straightforward way for the installer to work out how far it previously safely got, so the only option in that case is to delete the install directory and start over. Regards, David From: <firedrake-bounces@imperial.ac.uk> on behalf of Karin&NiKo <niko.karin@gmail.com> Date: Thursday, 29 August 2019 at 10:07 To: firedrake <firedrake@imperial.ac.uk> Subject: [firedrake] Problem installing Firedrake on Ubuntu 18.04 Dear Firedrake team, I am having big troubles in installing Firedrake on Ubuntu 18.04. - First I would like to report the error that I get when running : python3 ./firedrake-install --disable-ssh. Let me point that I run it behind a proxy but setting http_proxy seems to work, at least for several steps on the installation process. You can find the log as attached file.I have tried to run this script as a simple user or as root but i get the same error message. I also attach the echo of the script from the shell because it seems to me that they give some contreversial information of the origin of the error. - Second, I would like to know if there is a way to rerun the installation script *without* erasing the directory that the previous failed execution created. Indeed the script complains that "Specified venv '/home/xxxxx/dev/Firedrake/firedrake' already exists. Can't install into existing venv '/home/xxxxxx/dev/Firedrake/firedrake'" and the only solution I found is to erase the folder and rerun the script from the begining, meaning downloading again all that I have already downloaded. I thank you in advance for your help, Nicolas